Xscape Silicon Photonics, a startup focused on revolutionizing AI data centers, recently announced that it has successfully secured $44 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by IAG Capital Partners, with participation from Altair, Cisco Investments, Fathom Fund, Kyra Ventures, LifeX Ventures, NVIDIA, and OUP.
The company, founded in 2022, is dedicated to addressing the energy, performance, and scalability challenges faced by AI data centers. Xscape Photonics aims to achieve this through their innovative and fully programmable multi-color photonics technology, ChromX.
Vivek Raghunathan, the Co-founder and CEO of Xscape Photonics, highlighted the importance of finding sustainable solutions for the performance and scalability issues plaguing traditional data centers. He emphasized that building larger data centers is not a viable long-term solution and comes with its own set of problems related to energy consumption and costs.
With the rapid growth of AI workloads projected to consume over 20% of the energy in large-scale data centers by 2025, the need for energy-efficient and high-performing solutions has never been more critical. Xscape Photonics plans to support the next generation of AI by developing photonic platform solutions that enable ultra-high bandwidth connections within data centers to power advanced Generative AI systems.
The recent funding injection will be instrumental in accelerating the development of Xscape Photonics’ ChromX platform, which is designed to enhance AI data center fabrics. This brings the total funding raised by Xscape to $57 million, positioning the company for future growth and innovation.
Xscape Silicon Photonics was founded by a team of experts including CEO Vivek Raghunathan, President Alexander Gaeta, and Head of R&D Yoshi Okawachi. Raghunathan brings over 15 years of experience in silicon photonics, with a background that includes working at Broadcom and Intel. Gaeta is a renowned figure in the field of quantum and nonlinear photonics, while Okawachi has a wealth of research expertise in silicon photonics and optical frequency combs.
The company’s commitment to developing environmentally sustainable solutions for AI computing performance underscores its dedication to addressing the evolving needs of modern data centers. With a focus on scalability, cost efficiency, and density targets, Xscape Silicon Photonics is poised to make a significant impact in the realm of AI technology.
As Xscape Silicon Photonics continues to push the boundaries of innovation in the AI data center space, the recent funding round serves as a testament to the company’s vision and potential for future growth. With a team of experienced professionals at the helm, Xscape is well-positioned to lead the way in redefining the future of AI data centers.
